Parade America

JUSTIN….he totally scored Mother’s Day! He bought me…wait for it……..the Monet waterlilies LEGO! Yes, I am serious. He really did. I spent a hot moment admiring all the genius pieces making up the art lego. Just wow! Thank you, I love it very much. 

We HAD to celebrate with some ice cream once the last concert of the school year was over. Evelyn ended the concert series with her choir performance on Thursday. She looked very cute up on the risers singing her little heart out. We also went to Phillip’s band concert on Monday. Mr McEntee announced he is retiring after 17 years of teaching band at Columbia HS. The concert was a tear jerker when he realized that many of his former students were in the audience. The band booster made him a special quilt as a loving token. Mr Mac will be missed by Phillip. Evelyn and Everett had performances on Tuesday. Everett went first dancing in the Social Dance’s showcase. He did an amazing job dancing with girls and being killed on stage after a dancing duel took place. We raced to Evelyn’s band concert right after Everett’s showcase. I am always amazed that student start the year without being able to play their instruments to the end where they are playing music. 

Thursday was Reagan’s Touch-a-Truck event all day. This year there were twice the number of trucks for students to explore. Students loved the camera on the sewer exploration rover, the police boat, the SWAT vehicle, the Army transport vehicle, and the poaching truck. I brought Rita for the day in order to save my feet from dying due to standing on the concrete for 7 hours. It is fun to experience the student’s excitement as they explore each truck. You can imagine there was quite a load of honking horns, pushing buttons, pretending to drive, and hopping on every available spot. 

Friday was a work day. We started off with an end of year staff meeting. I was hoping for more information but Obert just regurgitated an email he sent the day before. Thanks man. I worked on getting stuff off my work laptop for the great laptop switch this coming week. I also made snap circuit kits so students won’t have to paw through all the drawers of components. I wanted to quit on Wednesday after the 3rd graders left my classroom. I sent 4 students to the library in exile for back talking. Another student broke a chair rocking back yelling “ba-ba-ba-bingo” then fell and snapped the chair. Those 3rd graders are hard to wrangle. 

Evelyn accepted an award for exceptional citizenship in the Nampa school district at a nice luncheon at the park. We listened to councilman someone or another give an uplifting talk. Looking at the students who got the award at EVMS most were Evelyn’s friends! The honor is given to students who go the extra mile, are helpful, positive, lead with courage, and do their very best. Evelyn is the best! We struggled through her last book report that was due last week. She wanted me to write out the report for her. We determined that was not being a good citizen, she dictated the report while I typed it out. We still need to get the artwork portion completed. 

I finally had a moment to take Everett to the DMV that is 30 minutes away. We enjoyed a drive through the owyhee range to the city offices in Murphy. I checked for the closing time which was 5 pm on the website AND google. Perfect. We walked in to have the office on duty tell us the DMV closed at 4 pm. Shoot darn. Missed it by just a few minutes. The website is for the city offices not the DMV, I learned those are separate. We will try again. 

Phillip got to march in the Parade America with CHS band. I dropped him off at 9:30 then went home to collect the rest of my minions. Amelia went to comicon with Hailey Hansen as Fluttershy pony. Justin left early to check out a radio exchange event in Meridian, but he got back just as we were leaving for the parade. He suggested we take the terror terriers. Those two nerdbonkers barked their heads off at every new thing, talk about reactive. Amelia took them to their well-check on Monday. She was highly embarrassed about their behavior, the vet said if those two don’t get some training they will not be welcomed back. Yikes. We parked at the Idaho Rhythm parking lot. The dork dogs immediately went bonkers. Everyone took turns walking them until they were too tired to bark anymore. Justin had 2-3 radios handed out so we could communicate with each other. Columbia’s Marching Band was the first main event! Phillip’s job was to throw candy at kids. He greatly excelled at this task with gusto. Josie was very excited to see Kara and Katie bringing up the rear of the parade. Kara is a rodeo princess this year! I convinced Amelia to go take mission photos after dinner and Grandma sitting. It was very windy! Wind is a curse and blessing, curses for her bangs and blessings for lots of movement with her dress and hair. We get a little silly together…I love it when I can make her honk laugh appear. After two hours of photos we were ready for some ice cream. Amelia found an Italian ice and custard place. It was quite tasty, the custard was very tasty. We both thought the Italian part was missing the zest. Thanks for humoring your mom.